Selective Asia

02/06/2026

So we’re going a little off-piste, geographically speaking, to share a few images from Nick’s recent journey back from a few days bikepacking through France’s Somme Valley. Nick returned to Blighty with .sailferry a brilliant (and equally sustainable) choice of cross channel ‘ferry’ that sails (like, actually sails), multiple times a week between Boulogne-sur-Mer and Dover. The four hour crossing aboard Echo was a bucket list opportunity that Nick couldn’t ignore after spotting news of its pilot launch in 2025. ‘Skipper Simon and deckhand Chris took care of all the sailing, but gave us all every opportunity to get involved and to move around Echo as much as we liked. It was the perfect ending to a brilliant mini-adventure. Bikes are easily stowed on board, but it’s very suitable for foot passengers of any kind. Some onboard had come over the following day just to return by sail. An outstanding experience, I highly recommend’ says a suitably excited Nick. At £85 a crossing, it’s good value too.

.sailferry

31/05/2026

Selective Asia is turning 20! We couldn’t be prouder of what we’ve achieved over the past two decades. The adventures we’ve helped create, the meaningful connections we’ve built and strengthened, the people we’ve met along the way, and how much we’ve grown and evolved as a company. Most importantly, we’re proud that our values and beliefs have remained at the heart of everything we do. And we can’t wait to see what the future holds!

To celebrate, we’re bringing back our much-loved Summer Booking Offer. If you book with us between 30th May and 21st September (for travel in 2026 or 2027), one of your guided city tours will be included completely on us.

And that’s not all. Everyone who books with us this summer will have a chance to enter a prize draw and win up to £1,000 worth of meals during their trip, organised and paid for by us.
T&Cs apply, as always. Follow the link below to find out more.

https://www.selectiveasia.com/summer-booking-offer

27/05/2026

Across Asia, holidays are often experienced around the table. Family recipes, symbolic dishes, street food prepared once a year, and meals designed to be shared with entire communities.

As Selective Asia celebrates 20 years (🥳) of exploring the continent we love most, we thought we’d take a look at some of the festive foods and celebratory meals that make Asia’s holidays feel so special (and even more so if you happen to be in the right place at the right time).

Warm up your dinner and discover what Asian feasts look like in the carousel ➡️

27/05/2026

While we at Selective Asia are proudly celebrating 20 years of exploring, creating, and paving the way for mindful, responsible, and impactful tourism, we thought it would be apt to talk about some of our favourite New Year festivities across Asia.

Tết in Vietnam marks the beginning of the Lunar New Year. This major holiday brings families together over festive meals and fills the whole country with decorations, flowers, and hope for the year ahead.

Losar is the New Year celebration in Bhutan, falling in February or March according to the Tibetan lunar calendar. This national holiday begins with ritual cleansing and the offering of butter lamps, while burning juniper incense is believed to ward off evil spirits.

Sinhala and Tamil New Year in Sri Lanka marks the end of the harvest season and the beginning of a new year. From sharing the first meal with family to pot-breaking competitions and pillow fights across villages, the festival brings a real sense of togetherness to the island.

15/05/2026

We love Japan in every form of its being, and we especially love its effortless artistry that weaves through every aspect of Japanese living. Architecture and spaces, gardens, rituals, food, hundreds of more traditional (less so for us) forms of art, and, of course, words. And we aren’t talking about poetry per se, but rather the Japanese way of describing a very particular moment or feeling with just one word. Oh, how we would love to have those words in our language!

Today, we’ve put together a small list of some of our favourites for you to peruse. Do you know any others that have captured your imagination? Share them in the comments.

14/05/2026

Some destinations impress immediately. Japan tends to reveal itself more gradually: through details, rituals, fleeting moments, and the quiet beauty of everyday life. It will, of course, strike you with neon city lights and its surreal blend of the ultra-modern and the centuries-old, but if you pay attention to the smaller, no less significant details, you’ll start noticing far more than what lies on the surface. In the country of 72 micro-seasons, noticing really matters.

Japan is also one of the few places where language itself reflects this way of seeing the world. Tomorrow, we’ll share a few of our favourite Japanese words that capture feelings and moments many of us recognise, but rarely have the vocabulary to describe.

08/05/2026

Today, David Attenborough turns 100. Few people have shaped the way we see the natural world quite like him.

Over a career spanning more than 70 years, he’s brought remote jungles, deep oceans, deserts and mountain ranges into living rooms across the world, often becoming the first introduction to nature for entire generations. From Life on Earth to Blue Planet, his work changed wildlife filmmaking forever, while persistently pushing conservation and climate awareness into the global conversation.

More than 50 species now carry his name, a fitting tribute to someone who dedicated his life to documenting the extraordinary diversity of our planet.

A century old, and still reminding people to look closer, travel better, and pay attention to the world around them. Happy 100th birthday, Sir David❤️

Photo credit: DFAT / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

(https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:David_Attenborough_at_Great_Barrier_Reef.jpg)

28/04/2026

Now that we’ve touched on sustainability, we’d like to share a bit more about some of the projects we work closely with. In our recent newsletter (do sign up if you haven’t already), we highlighted one of them — the World Land Trust. But there are others, too. Lone Buffalo, a community project in Laos offering free English tuition, sports, and creative programmes to young people from rural areas. Mine Advisory Group International, an organisation we partnered with in 2022 to help raise funds for their team in Laos, who are saving lives every day. And, of course, Turquoise Mountain, supporting and training artisans, reviving traditional crafts, and restoring historic buildings.

Supporting these organisations is a privilege, and we’re incredibly grateful for the work they continue to do.

26/04/2026

Sustainability is becoming a word of the century, and we acknowledge: when overused, any term loses its meaning.

This one, though, is one of our core values, and we’ll keep highlighting its importance for as long as we send travellers off to explore Asia. At the risk of overusing it, but with the sole intention of shifting tourism towards being more sustainable, more responsible, and having more positive impact.

Read MORE about our views and journey in the carousel➡️

24/04/2026

There are lesser-known places, hidden gems, and undiscovered nooks in every country that we love exploring. And then there are well-known destinations that rarely make it to the top of travellers’ lists.

From vibrant Mumbai, with its top-tier street food and nightlife, to Phuket, long considered one of the most touristy islands (but far more than that once you move away from Patong), we’ve put together a list of places not to avoid, but to dive into, straight from our seasoned team.

Read more on the blog:

Explore the Selective Asia team's favourite underrated places to visit in Asia that are well worth making time for. Get in touch to plan your trip.